March Food Plot Update

Game Camera Review

Deer Feeder Follies Continue

This is our first Food Plot Journal update since late last year. We have finally had the time and weather to start working on our plots this spring and we didn't want to fill your e-mail folders with junk information. So, here we go for 2005.

Corn Patch Food Plot

I had big plans to increase the size of the corn patch food plot and even put a connecting plot to the whippoorwill plot. Unfortunately the link to the whippoorwill plot is probably not going to get done.

The first thing we had to do today was put the starter back into our John Deere tractor. Last year it started smoking and we thought that this was probably not a good thing. Of course this took some of our limited time. The lights that we plan on putting in our barn this summer would have come in handy today.

We did get a start on the project a few weeks ago when we had some good weather but today we thought that it would be a good idea to concentrate on increasing the size of the corn patch plot first. It looks like the plot will grow to about a quarter of an acre depending on exactly where I drive the tractor when I get started. This plot borders a hayfield and I have the room to get carried away.

We spent the day trimming tree limbs, cutting old stumps out, pulling rusted barbed wire out and spreading lime. On our next visit we need to remove some old fence posts, more barbed wire and mow the new area. Hopefully it will dry out a little so we can pull our disks in from the middle food plot. We need to start disking this ground up soon.

We spread one hundred pounds of lime over about one-eighth of an acre. I would like to get some more lime to add to this and also apply some to each of our other plots. We also need to get some fertilizer to spread.

We are going to expand this plot. I am standing at one end taking the picture and the small gray spot is Ryan standing at the other end about 200 feet away.

Whippoorwill Food Plot

I have some Extreme seed left over that I plan on planting in the whippoorwill plot. This plot has great dirt but it is just too small. Maybe the PlotSaver can help this small plot out, we'll see.

I wanted to connect this plot to the corn patch plot but it would have taken a lot of time and work; time we did not have this year. It is going to be hard enough just enlarging the corn patch plot alone. We may have to wait until the fall to re-plant this plot.

The Whippoorwill food plot has very little clover left and we plan on planting some Extreme here if time permits.

Middle Food Plot

The middle plot looks like a mud plot right now. There are deer tracks throughout the plot and very little vegetation of any kind. It appears as though the deer have hit this plot hard in the last month. This will be quite a test for the Extreme. Right now it looks like the deer have already gotten the best of it.

We put up some PlotSaver to see if we could protect some of the extreme when it starts to grow again this spring. We may be able to get some scouting camera pictures of the plot. We put our scouting camera where the plot will be in the background of the pictures it will take. I'll probably put one of my cameras on one or more of our plots later this spring to see what is happening at our plots. I’m hoping the PlotSaver does the job here.

The Middle food plot is mostly mud. It's going to be a real test for the PlotSaver.

Oldhouse Food Plot

The plot at the oldhouse is still the best plot even though it has not started to jump up yet this spring and the grass is starting to creep in. I'd like to save this plot; it is the biggest and in the area where I like to hunt the most. We may use some herbicide here this year.

We just planted the garden plot last spring but it developed a lot of grass last summer. Maybe we can use some herbicide to get rid of the grass and give the clover that is there some room to grow. This plot has been disappointing but the deer did use it heavily last summer.

Last summer I was in search of a digital game camera and had a difficult time figuring out which one to buy. I finally decided a few weeks ago that I would try to test as many digital game cameras as I could. So far I have used three cameras and plan on getting one more soon. It has been interesting so far and I am excited to get the next one to try. You can see the my reviews at the game camera review page here.

If you have a suggestion on the next game camera I should get,

let me know.

We'll be watching our game camera pictures to see when the bucks start growing their antlers this spring.

Here is a neat picture of a deer, squirrel and a crow with a pretty rainbow of light caused by sunrise in the camera lens.

You have probably read about our ongoing battle with raccoons at our deer feeders and also our new tripods. The saga continued this week when we got pictures of a raccoon hanging on one of our feeders. There was a tree limb hanging down next to the feeder that the raccoon may have used, we're hoping this was the problem and we have moved the feeder again.

The tripods have been real nice. We have been able to move the feeder each time we visited them this winter to keep them out of the mud. We'll just have to keep an eye out for those overhanging limbs.

They are much easier to fill, especially when compared to climbing up those old ladders with buckets of corn.